January 2021

Military History Group

U3A Dorking

Newsletter Number 7

Contents

Group Leader Barry Friend 2 Programme 2021 3 Zoom Presentations 3 Night Bomber 3 Coronel and the Falklands – George Blundell-Pound 4 Saving Private Ryan: Saving Private McArdle 11 War Graves Week 2021 15 Three sons from Cranleigh 16 Guernsey at War – Occupation 17 Policing during the Occupation of Guernsey 20

Meetings via Zoom during Pandemic

Any contributions to the newsletter are very welcome and should be sent to Robert Bartlett at [email protected]

1 From Group Leader Barrie Friend

Fellow enthusiasts

The evenings are becoming lighter, all Covid 19 graph lines are going south and increasing numbers of us are receiving our inoculations, plus - the snowdrops are smiling at us. How heartening!

Whilst these are positive signs we can still only guess when we will meet face to face but you continue to support our Zoom meetings in a very positive manner. Thank you. Our last talk, by George, attracted an audience of 54 who heard of how the Royal Navy was badly bruised and battered at the Battle of Coronal in 1914 only to repay the compliment to the German Kriegsmarine a few weeks later at The Battle of The Falklands.

If you missed the talk, or wish to see it again, then visit Dorking U3A YouTube site. The link is https://youtu.be/Q2jRFpyIND0. Thanks to Mike Docker for setting this up.

George’s summary of the talk features below.

A reminder that our YouTube site carries these talks by military history group members:

What Did Grandfather Really Do in the Great War? Barrie Friend Adler Tag, The Battle of Britain. George Blundell- Pound The Unknown Warrior. Barrie Friend Balloons, Barnstormers and the Royal Flying Corps. Jim Barnes The Battle of Gallipoli, 1915-16. Mike Smith Was The Royal Navy Invincible in 1914? George Blundell- Pound

Our March 2 meeting Zoom talk will be by Jim Barnes on Women at War. Details are below.

Our Zoom learning curve, unlike the Covid 19 graph, is trending healthily upwards as Jim Barnes, George Blundell-Pound and John Sinclair apply their separate and joint skills to perfect your experience.

Programme for 2021

March 2 Jim Barnes “Women at War, that superior race! - Those Magnificent Women in their Flying Machines.” Jim Barnes will tell the story of how some very courageous and talented women contributed to the two world wars. From making ammunition to Bletchley Park and flying WW2 aircraft. Jim compares the success of the Air Transport Auxiliary women with the unhappy story of the American Women’s Air Service Pilots and how women became expert in flying and instructing on fighters and bombers like the Spitfire and Lancaster – yes superior to men!

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April 6 Barrie Friend “The defence of Britain in wartime.” We were all weaned on the tales of the Norman invasion of 1066, but since then we have kept our shores successfully sealed from our enemies’ threats. Yes, OK - 1667 was a hiccup for us and well done to the Dutch. When can we have our ships returned?

But how did we defend our country from enemy invasion in more recent times and how did we plan to deal with the invaders if they arrived on British soil by boat or parachute? Barrie Friend will identify the nature of the threats, the strategy behind the defence and the legacy around us today.

May 4 June 8 July 6 August 3 September 7

Zoom Presentations https://www.danhillmilitaryhistorian.com/archive

Night Bomber

The following message has been received

On Amazon Prime video and You Tube the incredible documentary called “Night Bomber.” It is without doubt the best documentary I have watched because there is no hype, no unnecessary comments or scenes and it’s all from real life footage shot during the Second World War at a Lancaster bomber base. I think that you would appreciate it very much with all the planning at different levels needed for operations. The incredible debriefing exercises after any air raids and the research and coordination of so many different branches all working together to produce the best possible result. It was interesting to see the lives of the RAF personnel, the loading of the bombs and looking inside the Lancaster bomber, the different equipment and all the different roles performed within. The tight tolerances from take-off to the chosen site to bomb and the return to base.

Just a complete all-round documentary, I never realised just how much coordination was required every day to put these bombers in the air. Although it’s not mentioned in the documentary, just imagine all the factories and workers and supply chains that backed up the bombing operations. I really recommend it.

3 Coronel and Falklands

George Blundell-Pound

Having been born in Accra in the then Gold Coast, I was a colonial boy and ever since have had an interest in the history of such places. Whilst I was aware of German colonies in Africa before the start of World War I, I was unaware that they also held territories in the Far East. Coincident with that discovery was finding out of the above two naval battles between the Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy during the very early months of the War. The combination brought about this research.

The German territories in the Pacific were called German New Guinea, included what is part of now Papua New Guinea and an extended groups of islands including the Marshall, Marianas and Carolinas. These are shown on the map below. The German navy had its main base at Tsingtao, now Qingdao on the coast of China.

The area covered by these territories was large, 96,000 square miles and military support was primarily provided by the German East Asia Squadron based in Tsingtao (now Quingdao), but cruising extensively throughout the Pacific, including the East coasts of the USA and South America. Whilst the squadron was not large, the ships and crews were specially selected for the task and had trained together for a number of years and more significantly had won prizes in gunnery competitions.

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The squadron was commanded by Vice Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee aged 53. One of his ships was the light cruiser Leipzig shown at anchor ‘somewhere in the Pacific.’

It was clear from news arriving to him from Europe that war might break out which would mean that the German territories would be indefensible against the potential allied armies and navies of Great Britain, Japan and Australia. That being the case, von Spee decided that the squadron’s best chance of getting back to Germany, although challenging, was via the Pacific and then the South and North Atlantic. As a result, the squadron left Tsingtao in mid-June 1914 with the remaining ships joining as they crossed the Pacific. In fact, the Squadron was at Ponape (now Pohnpei) when World War I formally commenced. The squadron’s passage across the Pacific was known to the Allies although often much later from reports of allied ships being taken to obtain fuel (coal). They reached a group of islands off the coast of Chile on the 26 October 1914 having gathered together the squadron’s five ships.

SMS Scharnhorst (flagship) SMS Dresden Armoured cruiser, 12,895 tons Light Cruiser

Main armament 8 x 8.3 inch Main armament 10 x 4.1 inch Plus SMS Gneisenau as per Scharnhorst Plus SMS Leipzig and SMS Nurnberg similar to Dresden

The British Admiralty had all sorts of priorities at the start of the War and von Spee’s squadron was just one of them. They had however sent the newly appointed Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Craddock aged 52, South on HMS Good Hope to meet up with and become the commander of the South Atlantic Station based at Port Stanley in the Falklands.

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Sir Christopher Craddock and his flagship HMS Good Hope. The Good Hope was an armoured cruiser of 14,450 tons and a main armament of two 9.2-inch guns. She was supported by another armoured cruiser HMS Monmouth 9,500 tons with a main armament of only 6-inch guns, a modern light cruiser HMS Glasgow 4,800 tons main armament two 6-inch guns, and an armed merchant ship HMS Otranto 12,124 tons and recently added 4.7-inch guns. Lastly and literally bringing up the rear was a battleship HMS Canopus 14,300 tons main armament four 12-inch guns. On paper a formidable warship but with a poor reputation for engine reliability and allegedly a chief engineer suffering from mental instability. It was supposed to be able to manage 18 knots but in reality, nearer to 12 knots, whereas the rest of the ships in Craddock’s command were capable of much higher speeds.

In the current age of satellites, radar and the internet it is difficult to imagine the difficulties of global communications in 1914. Craddock realised that von Spee’s warships would have to round Cape Horn and so he sent HMS Glasgow to Coronel on the Chilean coast to pick up intelligence and orders from the British Admiralty. The intelligence would therefore often be of date or received too late to be actioned. Craddock and the rest of his ships followed around Cape Horn with HMS Canopus even further behind with the collier ships to refuel the warships. Craddock believed his orders were to find von Spee’s ships and sink them, whereas the Admiralty knew he had a weaker force and only wished that he should find the enemy ships. HMS Glasgow’s arrival at Coronel had been reported to von Spee.

The Glasgow was listening to radio traffic signals and reported to Craddock that a cruiser German Leipzig was nearby. Von Spee had ordered all his ships to use the call sign ‘Leipzig’ to confuse anyone monitoring their radio transmissions so actually the whole cruiser squadron was sailing South. Thus, both protagonists anticipated their meeting and outnumbering a single ship.

By 4:20 pm on the 1st November both combatants sight each other and realise that they are facing significantly more enemy warships than they had planned for. Given he was completely outgunned by the superior firepower of the German warships Craddock turns to South in the hope of escaping as night falls and meeting up with his slower moving battleship. By 5:10 pm it is clear that HMS Otranto will be overtaken by the German ships thus Cradock turns to engage them whilst ordering Otranto to run towards the sun setting in West. Having made the decision he realises that he must get much closer to the German ships so as to allow his secondary armament of multiple 6-inch guns on Good Hope and Monmouth to have effect.

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Von Spee avoids his manoeuvres and awaits the sun to set when Cradock’s ships will be highlighted in the West, whilst his will be in the Eastern and thus darker sky. At 6:50 pm von Spee commences firing and an early shot disables one of Good Hope’s two 9.2-inch gun turrets. It is a very unequal battle and within two hours both Good Hope and Monmouth have been sunk with the loss of 1,600 sailors and their commander Cradock. A few German sailors have been injured and von Spee returns to Valparaiso to a hero’s welcome by the German expatriate population. He does realise however that the Royal Navy will want to deliver retribution. In that he is correct. The remaining British warships Glasgow and Otranto find Canopus and return to the Falklands. On the way Canopus breaks down on three occasions.

When the news of the Royal Navy’s defeat at Coronel reaches the Admiralty, they immediately send reinforcements to the South Atlantic. The last time the Royal Navy had lost a battle of similar size was off Mauritius in 1810 over 100 years before when warships looked like this.

In order to achieve its intended retribution, the Royal Navy sends significant reinforcements to the Falklands. They are led by Vice Admiral Sir Fredrick Doveton Sturdee who sails in his

7 flagship the armoured cruiser HMS Invincible accompanied by HMS Inflexible. They are both sister ships at 17,290 tons with a main armament of four 12-inch guns.

HMS Inflexible

When he arrives in Port Stanley on the 7th December 1914 he orders refuelling to commence and minor repairs to take place. The rest of his fleet includes no less than three armoured cruisers HMS Carnarvon, HMS Cornwall and HMS Kent. There are a further two light cruisers HMS Bristol and HMS Glasgow (a survivor of the Coronel battle). The battleship HMS Canopus has been beached in Port Stanley Harbour to act as a guard ship. In the meantime, von Spee has taken his time to round Cape Horn in early December and after much debate with his Captains decides to attack Port Stanley on his way back to Germany. His intelligence is also faulty as he believes there are no warships there. So, on the 8th December his ships SMS Gneisenau and SMS Nurnberg approach Port Stanley with the intention of silencing the radio station there. Before they open fire, HMS Canopus which has placed a spotting team ashore opens fire. This is a complete surprise to von Spee who leads his squadron off to the South East with Sturdee calling for all his ships to sail immediately.

It is very rare for photographs to be taken during an action as in most cases all crew members have a post at action stations. That evidently didn’t apply to Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant Duckworth RN. He took his photos from the mainmast of HMS Invincible. On the left is HMS

8 Glasgow and HMS Invincible leaving Port Stanley with HMS Kent in the distance. On the right one can just observe the smoke from von Spee’s warships on the horizon. The nearer smoke is from Invincible herself.

On the left HMS Invincible opening fire for the first time and on the right a near miss on Invincible from SMS Scharnhorst

A complex map showing the Falklands battle. The blue ships being the German warships and the red ships those of the Royal Navy. As the German warships have been at sea for some considerable time, they are unable to outrun the British. This is especially the case for his light cruisers Leipzig, Dresden and Nurnberg and like Craddock during the Coronel battle he decides to turn to attack in order to allow them to try and escape. The problem of speed also effects Sturdee as Invincible and Inflexible draw ahead of the rest of his fleet so he reduces speed twice. There then starts a long chase.

1.20 pm von Spee orders his light cruisers to scatter and turns towards the British ships 2.00 pm Invincible is exchanging shots with Scharnhorst and Inflexible with Gneisenau. The German ships are outgunned by the two British ships, although an accurate shot from Scharnhorst hits Invincible first. 2.45 pm the major warships are broadside to broadside and closing 3.00 pm firing continues with fires breaking out on both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with the latter listing.

9 3.30 pm The German light cruisers scatter with Nurnberg heading South East, Leipzig to the South and Dresden to the South West. Sturdee has foreseen this possibility. HMS Kent pursues Nurnberg, HMS Glasgow pursues Leipzig and HMS Cornwall pursues Dresden. 4:00 pm Scharnhorst has ceased firing. Invincible joins, shifts firing to Gneisenau alongside Inflexible. 4:17 pm Scharnhorst sinks. The cruiser HMS Carnarvon catches up with Invincible and Inflexible and also commences firing on Gneisenau. 5:30 pm Gneisenau rolls further to starboard and at 5:45 pm sinks. Undamaged boats are launched to pick up survivors.

At the same time, it becomes clear that the Dresden is faster than the pursuing HMS Cornwall which abandons the chase and joins HMS Glasgow in the pursuit of Leipzig.

Kent is pursuing the Nurnberg but is running out of fuel (coal) and slowing. The order is given to strip the ship of any wood for her boilers. So, ships boats, bunks and officers’ trunks are broken up. Kent gets back up to 25 knots just as the Nurnberg suffers two boiler explosions and slows and engages Kent.

7:27 pm the Nurnberg sinks. Both Glasgow and Cornwall catch Leipzig and engage. The Leipzig runs out of shells and fires two flares surrendering. 9:27 pm the Leipzig sinks

The naval battle of the Falklands is over with 1,871 German sailors killed including Graf von Spee and his two sons Heinrich von Spee on the Gneisenau and Otto von Spee on the Nurnberg.

Finally, almost exactly three months later on the 14th March 1915 the Dresden was found at anchor in Cumberland Bay, on Robinson Crusoe Island by HMS Glasgow and HMS Kent who opened fire. The Dresden immediately raised a white flag surrendering as she had run or of both shells and almost of coal. The crew opened her sea cocks and the scuttled the vessel. They were interned by the Chileans for the reminder of the war.

On the left SMS Dresden flying the white flag, centre HMS Cornwall before the battle and afterwards

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A monument to Cradock was erected at York Minster,

Medals struck in Germany to Graf von Spee and his two sons

Sturdees’ grave at St Peter’s church Frimley16 June 1916

Saving Private Ryan: Saving Private McArdle

Barrie Friend

Steven Spielberg’s film Saving Private Ryan vividly caught the imagination of the public in 1998 when it described how the American generals, in a very humane gesture, ordered the return from the front line in Normandy of the last serving son of a widow whose three other sons had been killed in battle in WW2. The film shows graphically how James Ryan is found and returned safely to his grieving mother.

It’s interesting to reflect on what Steven Spielberg could now achieve both artistically and historically for the British widow Mrs Mary McArdle who, in the Great War, also lost three sons, had another serving as prisoner of war, and was anxious for the safety of her remaining serving son, Harold. The service history of each brother alone would have made engrossing,

11 memorable, bittersweet viewing. But when melded together as one family’s history, would prove compelling and build on our culture of remembrance.

The McArdle family lived in Wavertree Liverpool. The head of the house, Henry, was a jute trader and with his wife Mary produced ten children, four girls and six boys. Five of the sons served in the army and air force whilst one son, Henry, was unable to serve due to a chronic medical condition. The serving sons all went to war in 1915 and 1916, and like all mothers Mary would have worried deeply about their well-being and as a sincere Catholic used the power of prayer for their safe return home. Sadly, her prayers weren’t to be fully answered.

1917 was a bitter year for Mary - two of her sons were killed in action. Neither has a named grave.

Corporal Robert McArdle enlisted November 1914 and went to France, aged 31, with 20th King’s Liverpool battalion (one of the Liverpool Pals’ Battalions) in November 1915. On 21st March,1917, he went out on patrol in the Neuville Vitasse area, near Arras, with ten others. Four returned. Robert sadly didn’t. He has no known grave but is remembered on The Arras Memorial.

Lieutenant Hugh Francis McArdle served with King Edward’s Horse with his war service also starting in France in 1915 when he was aged 26. Promoted to Lieutenant he joined the Royal Flying Corps and qualified as a pilot. Whilst on patrol in his DH5 single seater fighter on 18th September 1917 he was shot down by a German fighter near Arras. Like his brother Hugh has no known grave and is remembered on the Flying Services Memorial in the same CWGC

cemetery that Robert is remembered in. Brothers who were close in life and close in death. 1918 was unarguably an even worse year for Mary. In the German Spring Offensive, she lost a third son, another was captured and her husband Henry died.

12 Sapper Joseph Mcardle went to France with the Royal Engineers in August 1915. By March 1918 his company were stationed in the area of Epehy west of the St Quentin Canal. On the 21st March the Germans launched their major offensive, Operation Michael, in an attempt to break through the allied lines to Amiens and then to seize the Channel ports. Their starting point was The Hindenburg Line and Epehy was directly in the firing line.

Mary was very fortunate that Joseph was captured and not killed on 21st. We can only imagine her worry when she received the note saying Joseph was missing not really knowing his true fate. On release from Gustrow prisoner of war camp in northern Germany, he arrived at Dover on 1st December 1918 only to learn of the tragedy of yet another brother killed and of his father dying.

Lieutenant Peter Paul McArdle went to France attached to the 1/4 Yorks and Lancs, Regiment May 1916. He had been described as ‘the greatest gymnast Liverpool has ever produced’ and had been promoted from private in the Cheshire regiment in 1915. On 26th April 1918 as the Germans were making another push to break through the allied lines, Peter was killed south of Ypres. Like his two brothers killed in 1917 he too has no known grave and is remembered on The Tyne Cot Memorial

Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing and Cemetery, Passchendaele, Belgium

Mary and her husband Henry lived in middle class comfort afforded by his jute business which allowed them to raise ten children and employ two servants in a smart area of Lancashire. We can only imagine the stresses produced by his business which would have been added to by the loss of three sons in short order and hearing of a fourth who was missing in action.

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To what extent did these stresses contribute to would have been extreme.

Henry’s fatal heart attack on 23rd May, less than a month after the death of son Peter? Mary’s grief would have been extreme. The safety of her fifth and last serving son was now paramount. The British army showed immense compassion and support even though the war was now drawing to a close.

Private Harold McArdle had attested in 1915, joined the Machine Gun Corps in 1916 sailing to France in February 1917, aged 30. Because of the killing power of the Vickers Machine Gun (500 rounds/minute; range one mile) the guns’ crews were targets for German snipers and artillery. Casualty rates in the Corps were high with a third of the 170,000 officers and men becoming casualties and this attracted the nick name of ‘the suicide squad’. Harold had to be moved from this environment. His whereabouts in Italy was known, so unlike Private Ryan it was unnecessary to send a search party to look for him and by October end he was at the base camp at Etaples south of Boulogne safe from enemy action. His return to the UK quickly followed which would have been such a relief for Mary.

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Sadness for the family didn’t end with the Great War. Mary passed away in 1924 at the young age of 58. Harold married Gertrude in 1919 and they produced three sons Peter, Paul and Vincent. Paul became a member of the RAFVR and in March 1942 as Leading Aircraftsman with 11 Flying Training School, at Wittering when training to become a pilot he crashed and was killed. He was aged 19. He is buried in Great Crosby Roman Catholic Church.

It is unlikely that Steven Spielberg will consider the story of private McArdle for another film. The story of Harold, his brothers and parents will, however, live on with respect in their family’s history and as with all who fought and all who fell in all wars we also should remember their sacrifices and never forget.

War Graves Week 21-28th May 2021 Commonwealth War Graves Commission

In the build-up to War Graves Week, we want you to remember those who died in the world wars by creating your own wildflower memorial. We will send you free packets of wildflower seeds that you can plant in your own garden or in plant pots. If you plant them when they arrive, you’ll have your own patch of wildflowers which will grow from May to October. Share a photo of your bloom on Twitter and Instagram to enter our contest and win a prize.

You can apply for these seeds at no cost, but we’d love for you to donate to the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation. Your donation will help us to engage and educate people about our work. Apply through www.cwgc.org

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Three sons from Cranleigh

Closer to home, a tragedy of losing three sons struck a Cranleigh family. Two killed 13 July 1916, one on 1 July 1916 all on the Somme serving with the Royal West Surrey Regiment.

Albert Frank GREENFIELD Company Sergeant Major, 7th Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 55 Brigade, 18th Division. Army no. G/2192

He was killed in action on 13 July 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. He was 22.

He was the son of Frank and Eliza Greenfield, 7 St James Place, Cranleigh. His brothers Harry and Percy also fell. He is remembered on pier and face 5D and 6D of the Thiepval Memorial

Additional information His brother Percy who was in the same battalion was killed on the same day.

Harry GREENFIELD MM

Lance Corporal, A Company, 7th Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 55 Brigade, 18th Division. Army no. G/4184

He was killed in action on 1 July 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. He was 26 and the eldest of three brothers killed in the war. He was the son of Frank and Eliza Greenfield, 7 St James's Place, Cranleigh

He is buried in grave IV Q 5 Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz

Percy GREENFIELD Sergeant, 7th Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 55 Brigade, 18th Division. Army no. G/2194

He was killed in action on 13 July 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. He was 20. His brothers Albert and Harry also fell. He was the son of Frank and Eliza Greenfield, 7 St James Place, Cranleigh.

He is remembered on pier & face 5D & 6D of the Thiepval Memorial

16 Occupied by the Germans Guernsey at War Robert Bartlett

The following was instigated by an item on the BBC which considered the fate of some Guernsey policemen during the second world war. When seeking more information, a report made by the police officer who was to be in charge of the force on Guernsey during the war was found and that is included. It is interesting to note how the German invasion and occupation was undertaken with a less harsh approach than they did in other countries. It has been speculated that this was to demonstrate to the UK that there were few differences between the Germans and the British and they need not fight each other but work together to defeat common enemies.

The BBC recently ran a story about a group of Guernsey policemen arrested by Nazi occupiers and sent to concentration camps for stealing food. By chance I found a copy of a report written by Albert Lamy MBE BEM QPM the chief officer of Guernsey Police from 1942-1965 wrote a report “Policing During the Occupation of Guernsey 1940-1945” 1 which sets the background to the news report Lamy believing those involved in the thefts let the force down.

The 'Robin Hood' policemen who stole from the Nazis

BBC News2

During the German occupation of their island, a group of Guernsey policemen were deported to brutal labour camps in Nazi-occupied Europe after appearing before a British court. Their crime? Stealing food from the Germans to stop civilians from going hungry. Not all of them survived. Some of those who did return home at the end of World War Two were suffering with debilitating diseases and had life-changing injuries, yet they were treated as criminals and denied their pensions.

Decades after what the men's families believe to be a dreadful injustice, some of them made one last attempt to clear their fathers' names.

Cambridge University academic Dr Gilly Carr, who has spent years researching the five-year occupation of the Channel Islands, points out that the indignity of this time was in some ways even worse for the police than for civilians. "Policemen were required to salute passing German officers, which they found hard to stomach," she said.

Constables Kingston Bailey and Frank Tuck began their first acts of resistance against the occupying forces by putting sand in the petrol tanks of their cars and painting "V for victory"

1 https://www.guernsey.police.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=5470 2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-54106579 29 November 2020

17 signs around the island. The policemen were inspired by BBC broadcasts they would listen to in secret, which gave instructions on how to undermine the occupiers. Dr Carr said, "For these young men who were denied the opportunity of fighting in the armed services, such broadcasts appealed greatly - and their role as policemen gave them opportunities for action denied to most."

In the winter of 1941-42, the civilian population was suffering from food shortages. The Germans had plentiful supplies. And so, Bailey and Tuck broke into the occupiers' stores at night, taking tinned food to share with those in need. Bailey recounted in his memoirs that by February 1942 this covert operation was "getting out of hand… practically the whole police force was now taking part". It wasn't long until Bailey and Tuck were caught red-handed by German soldiers lying in wait for them. Eventually 17 policemen were brought before Guernsey's Royal Court. Some were accused of stealing bottles of wine and spirits from islander-owned stores.

The Germans were alleged to have tortured some of the men during their interrogations. One policeman, Archibald Tardif, recounted how he "was shown signed statements by other men and was eventually told that if I did not sign, I would be shot, so I eventually signed. "All these statements were typed in German."

The men were tried by both the German military court and Guernsey's Royal Court - effectively still a British court - and received sentences of up to four and a half years of hard labour.

Historian Dr Paul Sanders, who has worked on clearing the names of the men - all are now dead - said they didn't get a fair trial: "The British civilian court in 1942 acted like a kangaroo court in the worst dictatorship." He said the men were told by the Guernsey authorities to plead guilty so the Germans would let them also be tried in the local court, where any conviction "would count for nothing after the war". Sixteen policemen were deported to prisons and forced

18 labour camps in Europe, where many experienced awful conditions. Tuck wrote of the cruelty he experienced from guards: "I (was) kicked and knocked down and beaten with a pick handle and flogged with the butt of a rifle." Herbert Smith was the only one of the policemen to die overseas.

Tuck recounts that Smith was "deprived of food and clothes when it was terribly cold… and beaten with a shovel and a pickaxe in the stomach" and left to die in a Gestapo prison. When Charles Friend was liberated by US forces, he weighed only seven stone (45kg) and was unable to use his legs. He suffered for the rest of his life as a result of "those terrible days" and died in 1986 from a heart attack on the way to an exhibition featuring the story of what happened to him and his colleagues. His son Keith said: "He was scarred by his experience both mentally and physically and never recovered from it." Due to their criminal convictions, the men were unable to return to their roles in the police or claim a pension. Mr Friend remembered his father being resentful of Guernsey's authorities, who had told him they would "sort everything out when he got back from prison". "He was bitter and felt he'd been cheated by the local authorities who hadn't fulfilled their promise.

"I see what they did as a Robin Hood-type act. It's not a crime for personal gain; it was to feed hungry people, and as policemen they were in the position to do something about it." After the war, most of the men applied to the West German government for compensation for their ordeals.

In 1955, eight of the men tried to appeal against their convictions but were unsuccessful on most counts, meaning they all had criminal convictions when they died. The case was heard by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which is the highest court of appeal for certain British territories, including Guernsey. Dr Sanders said: "In the 1950s the illusion was upheld that British administration and justice in Guernsey had continued without being influenced by the Nazi occupation. This narrative continues right up until now."

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In 2018, an approach was made to the Privy Council to re-examine the 1955 appeal for three of the men. Barrister Patrick O'Connor QC, who took up the case pro bono, said: "It was a longstanding injustice for which the courts were responsible, and which the courts should therefore remedy." The appeal was refused in March of this year.

In its ruling, the Privy Council said: "There are a number of difficulties with this application, including the fact that the complaint of mistreatment inducing confessions could have been raised before the Privy Council in 1955, but was not." Mr O'Connor said: "There is no other procedure to overturn these convictions. Unfortunately, this leaves this show-trial as a stain against the Guernsey system of justice which will remain for good." For Mr Friend, it was a blow that was hard to take. "I was really disappointed," he said. "It seems so unfair, and there's still that stain on my family's character that shouldn't be there. "It doesn't matter that they are all dead now, the record is still there."

“Policing During the Occupation of Guernsey 1940-1945”

Albert Lamy MBE BEM QPM the chief officer of Guernsey Police from 1942-1965

During the time of the German Blitzkreig in May - June 1940 the inhabitants of Guernsey were very busy growing and exporting tomatoes; the war seemed far away. Even when the guns could be heard on the French coast the majority of the population had no idea that the war would reach Guernsey.

However, on the 19th of June 1940 it was decided to evacuate all children of school age and a number of other people. Also, men of military age who wished to join H.M.'s forces were given special facilities to leave the Island. There was a hectic rush and much confusion until the evacuation period finished on the Saturday, 22nd of June. A large number of the people left in

20 a panic, giving their houses, motor cars, stock in-trade to all and sundry. Quite a number of farmers turned their cattle loose, so you can well imagine the state of chaos which existed on this particular Saturday. Things got to such a pitch that the population were asked to see reason and seriously consider their position. This had a great effect on lessening the panic and eventually about half of the population remained behind in Guernsey.

The following week communications between Guernsey and the mainland were fairly normal and growers again commenced exporting tomatoes. On the Thursday a German reconnaissance aircraft was seen over the Town, but no great notice was taken of it. But at 6.50 p.m. the following day five German bombers appeared and played havoc with the Harbour and its surroundings. A large number of people were killed and wounded. Whole lines of tomato lorries were set on fire. By a stroke of luck one of the Southern Railway Mailboats which was in the Harbour was not hit. She left at dark crowded to capacity with passengers. The following day was extremely quiet. People were still suffering from the shock of this sudden raid which was carried out in the form of a normal bombing practice against no opposition.

Three large German aircraft landed on the Guernsey airport. That information reached the police station by telephone. At the police station there was a letter which had been handed in a few days earlier for my Chief to hand to the officer commanding German troops in Guernsey. You can well imagine our feelings on first seeing such an address. However, it was there for delivery and we were told German aircraft were on the aerodrome So, with my Chief and a couple of other police officers, we set out for the airport On the way we were stopped and told that three Blenheims had appeared on the scene and the three German aircraft had taken off and got away. However, we continued to the airport and saw the marks of their landing wheels across the grass. They had broken into the terminal building and we were then under. the impression they had left booby traps with the intention of blowing up the place. We searched and found nothing.

It was a peculiar feeling at the airport - a place usually so full of noise and bustle was then as quiet as a grave, with only sufficient wind to rattle the hangar door and these noises did not help our peace of mind. However, we found nothing and returned to the police station.

At about 8 o'clock the same evening the sirens again sounded and five large German aircraft circled the Island finally landing on the airport. This time they came to stay. 1 did not make the journey that evening but Mr Sculpher, my Chief, did with other police officers. As they approached the road leading to the airport they were held up by armed German sentries, who accompanied them the remainder of the distance, riding on the running board. When they reached the terminal building, they were immediately told to get out of the motor car and stand up against a pile of sandbags and surrounded by soldiers with machine guns. The note was then delivered and German troops, by means of commandeered cars, came to the town area. They immediately set up their headquarters at an hotel and asked to see the leading officials of the Island. The following morning there appeared in both local newspapers a Proclamation from the Officer Commanding German troops as set out below.

21 Apart from the threat to bomb the town this appeared extremely mild; but it was a true case of the mailed fist inside the velvet glove. All Service personnel left in Guernsey were instructed to report to the police station in the morning. They did so and were marched to the Royal Hotel and were interned at Castle Cornet, Guernsey for some weeks, and received extremely good treatment, being allowed out on their own at certain hours etc. but in course of time they were removed to a Prisoner of War Camp in Germany. Before the war we had a small German colony in Guernsey connected with a firm manufacturing Mohair rugs and one of the principals was a leader in the German Labour Front movement. They were all interned. All nationals were interned in Guernsey at the outbreak of War, but at the time of the evacuation all the internees were released, with the exception of this small German group, who were sent to England and interned.

The first days following the lst of July a very large number of troops were brought in by air - Junkers transports were used for this purpose and there was a continuous stream of aircraft all day long and well into the night bringing in men and equipment. Troops at this time were all in first- class condition, flushed with victory. They bought up as many suit lengths as they could and stated they would be taking them to London to be made up in Saville Row. At that time, they gave a date for London as the 15th of August. However, they were disappointed. The set-up at this time was purely military with just a few semi-civilian officers in the personnel, all of whom spoke perfect English. Police were allowed to go about more or less normally, and they did not at first post sentries, except at their various headquarters. During the night a body of men patrolled in an omnibus, but apart from that little other activity was noticed.

Early one morning towards the end of July when their omnibus approached a point near the Cliffs at one point of the Island, they found a large number of boulders strewn across the road. They promptly got a man out of bed living nearby and accused him of placing the stones and threatened to shoot him. This poor individual was too frightened to speak and they eventually came to the police station and stated that the police had to find the persons responsible for this act of sabotage. Police officers went out and after a while a sergeant came back with a clip of Bren gun ammunition, two fresh fancy cakes in a paper bag bearing the name and address of a Plymouth baker. It was then quite obvious that locals were not responsible. It was apparent that a landing had been made. Rumours then spread about that British soldiers were on the Island. Police were instructed one morning at 5 o'clock to comb the coasts, find these soldiers and hand them over to the Germans. Police turned out as directed and had quite a good time on the cliffs. Two British soldiers were seen, but that part of the cliff was left severely alone. Ultimately, two or three days later these soldiers gave themselves up and were interned as prisoners of war. The true story of this happening is that two local British Officers had been sent to the Island and ascertained that a large number of German airmen were quartered in local hotels close to the Airport, and this Commando raid was to attack the hotels and, if possible, to dispose of the airmen.

Unfortunately, many things went wrong - (1) Landing troops landed at the wrong point, and (2) the supporting party landed on the wrong Island and to crown it all a German aircraft was

22 overhead seeking to land on the airport but was unable to do so and was discharging Verey lights. The people on the cliff thought they had been seen and attempted to regain their craft by means of small boats, one of which was sunk, and the aircraft eventually crashed across the road. One Guernsey police officer, then in the Navy, was actually a member of that Naval party and he was in a boat within sight of the Island at dawn. He was picked up and finished the war in his normal role of British seaman. During the early period there were many changes in the higher German staff, each one being a little harder than the last. We did not notice this change until one day we suddenly realised we were virtually in prison. Of course, at this time the food situation was not too bad as the Island authorities had laid in ample stocks but it did not take the German troops long to dispose of this. It was nothing to see German troops rubbing down their bare backs with pure butter in order to prevent sunburn or frying food the pan swimming in butter - and tipping the whole lot out when they were finished.

By this time, although not long had elapsed, we were hoping for the sight of British troops. Information got to the German authorities to the effect that British Officers were on the Island and eventually a notice appeared in the local papers stating that all British officers on the Island had to give themselves up within a given period. If this was done no repercussions would fall on their various families. I soon had my sight of British soldiers for one afternoon two young officers, known to me, came to the Police Station to give themselves up and it was my unfortunate duty to convey them to prison.

The Germans did not take long to break their promises. These men had been sent to the Island on reconnaissance and had actually been landed and taken off several times. Their parents and all connected with them were promptly arrested and flown to Paris, all wireless sets were confiscated as a punishment. Amongst the people arrested was our present Bailiff, Sir Ambrose Sherwill. A few days before Christmas 1940 they were suddenly told while in prison that the Germans intended taking a lenient view of the situation and they were released and brought back to Guernsey. The two officers concerned were transported to an internment camp, and the wireless sets were returned to the population just before Christmas.

During all this period Police had been operating without passes. The German authorities had been accepting the uniform not bothering about other identification. At that time the issue of all passes was in the hands of the Military and we were issued with three passes to serve the whole of the Force. These took the form of a large map of Guernsey about 18 inches square with certain areas shaded as forbidden territory and attached to each was a note signed by a German officer to the effect that the holder of this pass was permitted to be out at any time during curfew, which was between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. but he was not permitted to be within the shaded areas. These passes were contained in a long cardboard cylinder, somewhat longer than a truncheon, and the Police Officer carrying them had to carry the passes in their truncheon pockets and their truncheons in some other suitable place. Needless to say, there were not many policemen on the roads at night.

23 Shortly after this in the early days of 1941 the German Field Police arrived in Guernsey. Although we had had one or two odd members before they had not appeared as a body. These could be divided into three separate sections; the Military Police operating somewhat on the same lines of our Red Caps, (we had little to do with these at this time); the Feldgendarmerie, something on the lines of our Security Force and the G.F.P. or Geheim Feld Polizei otherwise generally known as the Gestapo. Most of our early dealings were with the G.F.P. Needless to say they were not popular. One member who spoke perfect English had previously been in the lumber business in Canada, and a favourite pastime of his was to get about in civilian clothes amongst the civilians running down the Germans to get their reaction. Although 1 said he spoke perfect English it was with a Canadian accent and there were very few people taken in by him.

Our dealings with the Feldgendarmerie were very difficult, particularly at first for they spoke no English and we spoke no German. We had no interpreter and had no intention of providing one. So, every time they came to us, they had to provide an interpreter. The officer in charge of the section which included Police - and this very much resembled a civil affairs unit, was a German aristocrat who had very little use for anything British, and whenever he could he made things difficult for us and all the local authorities. We noticed this particularly for his predecessor was an Austrian Doctor of Law and quite a decent fellow.

By now the Germans could see that the War was not finishing quite as quickly as they expected, so they then made preparations to fortify the Island. Thousands of foreign workmen were brought in, mostly Algerians, but they included every nationality in Europe, even Indo- Chinese. It was rather funny to see these individuals being marched to work. They were dressed mostly in rags, their feet tied up in sacks, and carrying umbrellas. The Germans had not yet provided accommodation for these people so they took over whole streets turning the residents out of their houses for foreign labourers. They were naturally filthy and soon turned their houses into pig sties.

German troops were also commandeering property and the civilian population never knew what minute they would be turned out of their houses. The usual procedure was for a German billeting officer to go round a certain road he fancied, accompanied by a local official, and instruct the people that they had to be out of their houses within 24 hours. Sometimes only 6 hours’ notice was given. They were told that they could only take their personal clothing, all furniture had to be left. Quite a number of people took furniture and hoped for the best. In some cases, they got away with it but often they were made to bring their goods back.

In many cases, particularly where houses were used for offices, any surplus furniture was thrown out in the garden to rot or to be used as firewood, but the owner was not allowed to return to retrieve his belongings. With the coming of the foreign labour, we had another section of police officers, namely O.T. section, and it was during this period that we had a number of regular German policemen appearing on the island. We naturally thought that they were coming to take over our duties, but fortunately they were only brought on holiday to see the place and did not come near the Police Station.

24

One day the Germans noticed that one of their large cables had been cut. We were asked to make the usual enquiry. Of course, we did with the usual negative result. The Germans then ordered that all men between 18 and 45 would be called upon to provide all night guards to guard this particular cable. Men were duly warned to attend and Police had to do the supervising. It was the funniest thing imaginable. The guard was responsible for roughly one mile of road. They were taken out in batches and were placed about 30 yards apart, doing two hours on and four off. It was obvious to everyone that this was a silly type of guard, consequently no one took it seriously. After about two weeks the Germans stated that the guards could be withdrawn.

Shortly after this another cable was cut in a different part of the Island and I was directed to enquire into it. I went there with a German sergeant major, who was a regular policeman in Breslau, quite a decent old fellow, and an interpreter. It was quite obvious the cable had been cut deliberately and there was little I could do about it. The interpreter, after speaking to the German Policeman, turned to me and said, "Mr Opitz would like to know what you think." I replied, "There is only one thing I can think" and left it at that. He translated to the Policeman and then the interpreter said to me, "Mr Opitz agrees with you. It was rubbed on the railings accidentally." And that was the end of that matter.

Another incident I didn't clear up, but rather put my foot in it, was when apparently some German soldiers chalked on a doorway the words "Deuchtsland Uber Alles" and some local wag had crossed out "Uber" substituting "Unter". I went there with a member of the Feldgendarmerie, who by the way was a Professor in a Berlin University, and a lecturer in the Nazi doctrine. Not knowing German, I did not understand what all the trouble was about, so I asked him what "Deuchtsland Uber Alles" meant, and he said, "Germany over all". It struck me very strange that they should have been singing this for years, so without thinking I turned to him and said "You've got a bloody sauce, haven't you? You over Us" and then realised what I had said. It was too late. We had rather a strong argument and the matter rested there.

By this time, we had several thousands of foreign labourers in the Island. On paper they were fed on the same rations as the German troops, but as this paper originated in Berlin, then was sent on to Paris as Headquarters of occupied territory and went through various offices until it finally reached Guernsey, each particular unit taking some "rake-off" from the rations, and their own local unit probably taking the major portion, you can well imagine how little was issued to these poor unfortunates. Their main food was about one pint of very watery soup three times a day together with a hunk of German bread, which, by the way, was very satisfying, and a small portion of German sausage. These meagre rations were insufficient for men doing hard work and consequently they resorted to stealing.

We had three entirely different types of people stealing. The slave labour type who stole mostly growing crops; the German soldier who specialised in milking cows and stole live animals; and the local who had a hand in all things. We were rather lucky in being able to separate these three groups. The slave labourer type invariably wore very badly broken boots and these

25 impressions were found in the neighbourhood of pilfered crops. The German soldier always wore jackboots with the sole heavily hob-nailed, but it also had a peculiar type of heel tip. This was very narrow and easily detectable, which then left us the normal type of boot or shoe of our own population. Although at this time locals were not causing us a great deal of trouble, the food situation had become acute with a majority of local people tightening their belt and hoping for the best. Whenever the narrow heel and broken boot type of prints were found we immediately handed over the enquiry to the German Police. A large number of cases concerning foreign labourers were detected but precious few of the military were ever brought to book.

Civilian police were not allowed to arrest Germans nor their allies. In the event of a German soldier or civilian being seen committing a crime, or being suspected of a crime, instructions were to follow him and report the facts to the German police. We usually did this as quickly as we could and they usually delayed their enquiries as long as possible. Of course, there was little we could do about this as we adopted the same procedure.

One instance during the early hours of the morning - two local police officers were on patrol in the country area when they noticed German soldiers carting household goods from one house to another. Nothing had been reported of this, therefore local police could take no action, but they got close enough to identify the soldiers and also ascertain their billet.

Next morning information was received to the effect that the first named house had been forcibly entered and a large amount of goods taken. These facts were reported to the German police, who during the afternoon, acting on information received from us, interviewed suspects and later went with them to the harbour where all the goods had been packed in wooden cases, labelled and were awaiting shipment to Germany.

We were allowed to arrest the foreign element type, but we could not deal with them. They were a pest. I have already mentioned that they were living on short rations, but the majority of them being Algerians their only god was money. Therefore, they would sell their rations and steal others for their own use. We would not have minded but as they were selling a large amount of our growing crops, upon which all Guernsey were dependant, we took a rather dim view of it. I remember one occasion when we arrested 28 of them in one batch and had to engage the services of an omnibus to convey them to their place of detention.

On the 5th of March 1942 the heaviest blow of all fell on the police force. Two members of the Force were arrested by the German police. They had been found in a German store in the act of stealing. They were taken to the German police headquarters and questioned for a short while, and then the whole of the Force was arrested and a German left in charge of the police station. The majority were released the same afternoon. German enquiries went on for about two weeks and ultimately 17 men were detained in prison. As the result of these cases, it was ascertained that quite a number of these men had been engaged in stealing our own civilian supplies. They all appeared before the German Court for the German offences and those accused of civilian offences were handed over to us for trial.

26

You can well imagine how we, who had to make the enquiry into this matter, felt. On the one hand the whole Force had been badly let down, but on the other hand we had all been pals for so long, and this did not make a distasteful task any easier. However, they were sentenced to terms of imprisonment to run concurrently with their German sentences, and the majority of them served these sentences either in France or Germany. One member was so badly knocked about in Germany that he died from his injuries. We were then left with a very depleted Force. The whole of the civilian population had little room for us, and we then had to pick up from scratch. We recruited where and when we could and, on the whole, got hold of some fairly good material.

Arising from this Mr Sculpher was suspended from duty and his place was taken by an Inspector. Worse was to follow in July when the new Chief was arrested and imprisoned for receiving some of the stolen property. I was then appointed in charge of the Force. The Germans then contemplated taking entire charge of the police and each day the Occurrence Book had to be submitted to the German police for examination. We did not worry unduly about this because the people examining the Book did not know sufficient of the English language to read it, and some of the handwriting, to say the least of it, was not helpful. However, after about a month this practice fell off and we got back to normal, that is, normality compared with Occupation conditions.

At one time the Germans issued an order that police were required to salute all German officers, failing which they would be punished. We had very little in our shop windows, but it was strange what attention that little had for the police at the time German officers were passing. They rarely had a salute, but of course there were times when this distasteful task could not be dodged. This went on right up to the end of the German occupation. As you probably know German troops in uniform, wearing headgear, used the normal military salute. If without headgear they gave the Heil Hitler salute. This went on until the attempt on Hitler's life, when normal military salute was abolished and all had to use the Heil Hitler salute.

Before the end of the war a new civilian commander arrived in the Island, the Commandant of the Channel Islands being an admiral and his headquarters were in Guernsey. When this new man arrived, he asked me to see him and during conversation he stated that the admiral complained that the British policemen saluted him too stiffly. He didn't want that sort of show. If they just raised their right hand that would be sufficient. In other words that was the Hitler salute, and the suggestion, I thought, very diplomatically put forward. This called for a diplomatic reply. I thought for a moment and told him that whenever a British policeman was required to salute, he had to use the military type, therefore there was nothing we could do to alter the form as laid down. He accepted that and that was the end of that.

By now we had the measure of the German police and whenever possible we played them off one against the other. If the Military Police (Red caps) told us to do something we thought we could get out of we went along to the Feldgendarmerie, told them a story and they, not being too keen on the military section, invariably took our part. If on the other hand the

27 Feldgendarmerie told us to do something which we did not like we saw the Gestapo and told them a story and more often than not the order was countermanded. It was rather funny, we had three German units each disliking the other and because of that dislike we could come between them and upset them. However, it paid good dividends and we kept it up and so far as 1 know the ruse always succeeded. About this time the Germans suddenly decided to send English born people to Germany. There were certain exceptions - women married to Guernseymen or persons over the age of 70 and young children. They also decided to send all ex-army officers and a few other people who were criminal characters. These people were circulated and told to report to a cinema on a certain day bringing with them their hand baggage. The local authorities did as much as they could by providing rations for the journey, but these people were herded together and marched down to the Harbour and eventually shipped off to Germany. Amongst these people were Mr Schulpher and two police officers who had joined us after the March episode. I had eleven English born men on the Force at that time. I made representations and managed to retain nine.

By this time the Germans were enforcing their own penal code in Guernsey. Of course, our own local laws were still in operation but one of the strange parts about the German law was that they had nothing to deal with children, and it was strange to see the number of children blamed for some offence they knew nothing about. Of course, no further action was taken. Persons arrested by the Germans were sometimes brought before the court and tried. In other cases of a so-called mild character, statements were taken from all concerned, submitted to a Tribunal outside the Island and eventually the culprit received a notice in German stating that he had only been fined so many Reichmarks or sentenced to a term of imprisonment. He had no opportunity of defending himself and was told he could appeal if he liked, but they advised him not to do so because invariably the sentence was doubled.

Our local prison was not big enough to take all these persons serving a short term. The prison contains 35 cells - 29 for men and 6 for women. The women’s section was left for our use and the men's block was taken over entirely by the Germans. All cells had at least three occupants, and there came a time when there was a waiting list. This feeling between the various sections was carried into the prison. Prison warders were soldiers pure and simple, thus coming under the control of the military police, and a large proportion of the prisoners had been put there by the Feldgendarmerie, and I know of several instances where local men had been serving sentences for German offences and the guards gave them permission to go out in the evenings to the pictures providing, they gave their word of honour to return.

The German police rarely dealt with cases against civilians when the offence concerned civilian authorities only. These cases were invariably handed over to us for prosecution. Most of them were of a trivial nature and the statements had been extracted, to say the least of it, not in accordance with the Judge's Rules. When such cases came before our Magistrate I always appeared for the prosecution and opened up with words somewhat on these lines, "Sir, this is a case detected by the German Police and handed to us for prosecution". From there I continued in a normal way but from my opening remarks he knew exactly what I meant and in all cases the offender was either Bound Over or was sentenced to pay a normal fine. This was a rather

28 double-edged weapon, because on one hand we were showing we would not be dictated to by the Germans, but on the other hand some of these people were being given unfair advantage over their fellows, but the fellow taking advantage of the situation usually fell into our clutches at a later date. We again were in a very difficult position, for except when we had no other course open to us, we never handed over a local to the Germans. You will see now how difficult it was with a Police Force recruited under the circumstances ours was to carry out our duties efficiently. The men had had no proper training as policemen and were now being brought up in an atmosphere where they were asked to condone crime. We searched houses and in a number of cases where we searched, we came across stolen German goods. Rather than hand these people over to the Germans, in some cases we dropped our side of the prosecution.

One rather amusing incident of this kind was in the country area - the Germans were laying railway lines. Every night the locals upset most of that day's work by stripping the rails and stealing the sleepers. Up to this point the German police had not been informed. One day a constable had reason to search a house in this neighbourhood. He found a shed stacked to the ceiling with the sleepers taken from this railway. He did not find the article he was looking for and advised the occupant that trouble was bound to come eventually concerning these sleepers and told him to get rid of them within forty-eight hours, and that he would come back and search his premises again.

This man promptly got rid of his sleepers and strangely enough the German police took up the matter of the lost sleepers the following day. All the houses in the neighbourhood were searched and with the exception of the one visited by the police constable sleepers were found in all of them. These people were dealt with by the German police and were all fined. The man coming under our notice was the only lucky one in the district although there was little doubt that at the time, we saw him he had far more on his premises than all the rest put together.

On another occasion Police on patrol found a man stealing coal from a large dump. He was brought in and the facts recorded and after enquiry it was found that this particular dump belonged to the Germans. I took no further action in the matter but did not tell him that I was dropping the prosecution. I thought it would be better to leave well alone rather than risk trouble by careless talk on his part. However, about a month later the Germans found him stealing their coal and promptly arrested him. You can imagine how worried I was for a while fearing that he would say that he had been picked up by the civilian Police and that we had taken no action. However, he did not and that was the end of that matter.

We had quite a large number of people in the Island who apparently thought more of the Germans than they did of their own Nationals. These could be divided into two categories - open collaborators and writers of anonymous letters. In the first category there was an Irishman employed by the Billeting Staff. He knew the Island fairly well and was able to take the Germans to the right places, to get the stuff they required. He was formerly manager of a clothing shop in the town and beneath this shop was a store.

29 One night a police officer found the door open and the only thing in the store was a wireless set. All wireless sets had been confiscated by the Germans; therefore, this set was brought to the police station and the fact duly recorded in the Occurrence Book. I felt that although he was a collaborator, he was still British and I wanted to give him a chance, but as this incident had been recorded in the Occurrence Book there was always the possibility that the Germans might see it, so I sent for him and showed him the set. He asked me where I had got it. I told him and said that I would take no action for 24 hours in order to give him an opportunity of thinking out a decent story to cover this matter. He thanked me very much and went off.

Less than ten minutes after he had left the office, I had a telephone message from the German police stating that I had a wireless set in the police station. I strongly denied this, and they eventually said, "I know you have got a Set. Mr X is here and has just told us about it." So, you can see from that he was even more of a collaborator than I first thought him.

Of the other type, the anonymous letter writer, perhaps one of the best instances is that I once received a letter stating that a certain farmer was sheltering a British airman. 1 knew this farm and all surroundings to be occupied by German troops, they allowing the farmer one or two rooms and therefore it was virtually impossible for him to shelter anyone.

The writer also stated that a similar letter was being sent to the German Police. There was always the possibility that he might have been sheltering someone so I went out immediately in order to be ahead of the Germans. However, when I got there, I was quite satisfied there was no one there, and asked the farmer if he could recognise the writing. He stated that he thought he could. It was that of a woman living nearby who had always been causing trouble. It was the farmer's daughter who was supposed to be responsible for hiding this airman and the daughter's name was Eileen.

We had no machinery for dealing with these anonymous letter writers and this was one of the most despicable of them. I knew one of the fellows on the German police whom I could trust so I gave him the letter and also the name of the suspected writer and asked him if he would go out and frighten her. He did so and about six weeks later I had a further anonymous letter from the same writer stating that Eileen had been a nervous wreck ever since the German police called on her. I saw Eileen shortly after. There was nothing wrong with her and it was quite obvious we had got the guilty party but could take no action against her.

Hundreds of such letters were received and the majority of people picked up for being in possession of illicit wireless sets were betrayed to the Germans by these means. As the penalty was usually two years imprisonment, and this in a German prison, it was no light matter to be found in possession of a set, although hundreds of people in the Island had them.

We were now getting very low down on all our commodities and the Black Market was rampant. Rations were insufficient to keep an animal alive. I remember at one time my wife was in hospital and the two boys were boarding at school. 1 drew my fortnightly ration of

30 groceries for which I paid 2/2d. This consisted of a very small amount of macaroni. I also drew, quite wrongly, vegetable rations for the four of us. By this means I managed to exist.

There was one period of three weeks towards the end of 1944 we were without bread. It will be seen that so little was being issued officially there was a great demand for any food stuffs which could be obtained illicitly. There was one type of Black Market in which we took no interest at all. This consisted of goods illicitly imported by the Germans and sold by them. As this had no adverse effect on the population as a whole, we were not interested. But on the other side locally produced foodstuffs, namely meat, butter, eggs, root vegetables etc., came in for stringent attention. The meat ration consisted almost solely of newly born calves slaughtered within fourteen days of birth and issued fortnightly.

We had no salt ration, and although Guernsey is an Island surrounded by salt water, we were not allowed to go down to the beaches to gather this for cooking vegetables. Salt water was obtained by authorised persons and retailed to civilians at the rate of 2 1/2d per pint. There were others who took risks in getting salt water. This was boiled and the residue salt sold for five marks (10/8d) per lb. Butter was sold at the rate of £5 per pound; flour milled from locally produced corn, which was very roughly ground and sold at £1 per pound. Without going any further this will give you some idea of the extent of the Black Market. Cigarettes, made from locally grown tobacco, smelled like a bonfire and tasted like nothing on earth, were sold at 35 marks for a packet of twenty, this being a little under £4.

All areas of root crops, as well as the numbers of all animals, were registered. Therefore, producers had to find some means of satisfying the Authorities when their stocks were found to be deficient. The usual procedure in the case of cattle was to strike a deal with a Black Marketeer, leave the animal in a certain field overnight when it would be collected and promptly slaughtered and distributed, and about two days later the farmer would report to the Police that an animal had been stolen the previous night. We had actual proof in two cases of this kind and prosecuted. Although we knew it was going on in most cases, we were unable to prove it.

Of course, there were cases of genuine stealing. With regard to root crops the Germans by now were actively engaged in stealing potatoes. Their method was just to walk along a field, pull up stalks and whatever potatoes came with them. As soon as this happened the unscrupulous farmer would promptly clear a big patch and hide them, reporting to the police that his crops had been pilfered and thereby getting a variation of his registration.

We managed to prove one or two of these, but again it was extremely difficult. One farmer, who was growing potatoes in a greenhouse, reported that the whole of the crop had been lifted overnight. This greenhouse was 260 feet in length by 32 feet wide and not one potato was left in the place. Although we could prove nothing against him, we were quite satisfied that this could not have been done by any person working in the dark.

31 The persons slaughtering cattle had the greatest difficulty in disposing of the skins. They usually employed the same means by digging a hole, burying the skin and entrails and when complete dowsing the whole of the area in water, we detected quite a number like this but they usually employed the same method and made it fairly easy for us.

We had very little solid fuel and we were issued with a meagre supply of logs. These logs came from freshly cut trees and it was impossible to burn them until they had dried out. Gas was firstly rationed to so many feet per person per household per day. It was not enough for the usual household and many persons disconnected their meters and connected the two pipes with a piece of old bicycle tubing. These offences were usually detected by the Gas Company's inspector when checking the meters. In the event of going over the top of the ration to any large extent the supply was discontinued.

However, we ran out of gas and electricity and those having candles were considered fortunate. Our ration for use at the police station was one candle per day. The usual procedure being that office staff went off when dark and the Enquiry Office left in the dark until about 6 or 7 p.m. when the candle was lighted for an hour to write up any afternoon reports, put out until 10 p.m. when it was used until such time as the final day's reports were entered up and then extinguished again, the stub saved for emergency use during the night.

Water was also very scarce owing to lack of fuel for pumping purposes and people were told that they were not allowed to use water for flush tanks. If detected it would be regarded as an act of sabotage and they would be imprisoned. The usual expression when pulling the flush tank was "One for Hitler".

At this time all commodities were in very short supply. We had been unable to obtain torch batteries and the only means of illumination available for the police officer on patrol was his cigarette lighter. You can well imagine the difficulties which arose. The black-out was 100% effective owing to the fact that no artificial illumination was available at night. The only way a police officer could examine premises was by a sense of touch, and when in doubt, use his lighter. It so happened that there was very little in the shops and therefore less risk of breaks. We supplied an all-night guard for the main food stores. Rations were issued to the shops weekly and as these rations were so small and the people eager to obtain them they did not remain long in the shops.

Apart from trousers and boots Police uniforms in use at the time of the Occupation were still being used in May 1945. We were able to obtain a very shoddy material from France. This was made into trousers and after it had been used about a month it began to turn red, and was of little use. It was quite a common occurrence to see a Police Officer walking about with a patch on his trousers.

Boots were made locally; the leather being obtained from the animals slaughtered in the Island. The skins were sent to France, turned into leather and returned to Guernsey. As we had so little meat consequently, we had little footwear. Other garments such as tunics, capes, overcoats,

32 helmets etc were in constant use. We had no option when taking recruits except to get a man to fit the existing uniform, therefore if the uniform was cut down the next man using that had to be either the same build or smaller, and during this period there was quite a bit of coming and going. Bicycle tyres and tubes were unobtainable. Men doing country patrols used pieces of hose or rope wired on to the wheels as tyres. You can well imagine the comfort these men enjoyed when on patrol.

Food by now was very short and consequently working hours had to be reduced. This was Island wide and a police officer's day was reduced to six hours. We did this by bringing half the relief on at the normal time 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. or 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and the other half two hours later. As an additional help we established country sub-stations thus enabling men to work the area nearest to them. This system worked very effectively.

One matter touching on the question of bicycles occurred shortly after "D" Day when the Allied Forces had over-run St Malo and the neighbourhood, thus cutting off the Channel Islands. One police constable had been on night patrol and his bicycle completely packed up under him. He 'phoned the Sergeant at 6 a.m. telling him that he would be late reporting and giving the reason and stated that he would not be long as he knew where he could get another bicycle. This police constable had regularly met a German major at the same point each morning; the German using a very good bicycle. The afternoon before this incident occurred a British destroyer had brought up off the Island under cover of a white flag and asked the German Garrison to surrender as the situation was now hopeless. The Garrison did nothing of the kind, but this was not known to the general population. Consequently, all sorts of rumours were about.

However, on this particular occasion the police officer waited for the German major. He duly arrived and the PC went up to him and said, "I want your bicycle. You will have no further use for it. The War is over, you have lost." He took the bicycle and the German major asked what he was supposed to do. The policeman replied, "Walk the same as I have had to do," and went off with the bicycle. When he arrived at the station the sergeant asked him where he had obtained the bicycle and he told him the story, whereupon he was informed that the War was not over so he had better prepare for the worst when the German realised it. The war did not finish for 12 months and nothing further was heard of the incident. The major must have either been pro-British or else he had previously stolen the bicycle.

Petrol rationing was very rigid. The Germans were also afraid that in the case of invasion too many private vehicles would be on the road causing congestion so they combined economy and strategy and had very few cars on the road. I remember on one occasion I had to go with other Island officials to the German headquarters when they were definitely going to take more vehicles off the road. We, at that time, had a Wolseley car and two motorcycles. I was told that we had to take our car off the road. I said it was impossible and gave various reasons which they believed, but after, as a compromise, I said we would do away with the car provided we could have a smaller vehicle. They promptly agreed to this and we purchased a half-ton van, but ever after we used the van, two motorcycles and the car. They granted a permit for the extra

33 vehicle and continued to permit the car. This went on right to the end of the war and they never realised they had given us an extra vehicle.

German troops were getting short of food and were stealing more than ever. We often kept observations on farms throughout the night accompanied by a member of the German police. They were armed and did not hesitate to use their weapons if necessary. On one occasion when we were unable to supply a man one member of the German police, together with the farmer's son, kept observation in the stable nearby. During the night two soldiers entered. The German policeman came from his hiding place and chased them but lost sight of them around a corner. As he passed one of the intruders jumped out, grabbed his pistol and promptly shot him dead. This man then threw the pistol away and tackled the young farmer. He had him on the ground attempting to cut his throat, in fact several cuts were inflicted when the second man appeared on the scene and tried to get his accomplice away. However, the farmer got to his feet and they again had a scuffle against the wall.

The farmer's mother came out with a pitchfork and by this time the farmer was feeling the effects of his wounds and told his mother to stick the German with the pitchfork. She was nervous and had cause to be. She attempted to wound the German but owing to her nervousness stuck the fork in her son's arm. This enabled both soldiers to get away. Enquiries were immediately instituted and a soldier's identity card was found. Later the same day the soldier who had shot the policeman was arrested. The second man was never found, although they knew his name, and it has been suggested that the arrested man, knowing his friend had lost his identity card, had killed him and disposed of the body, leaving no trace, believing the story that 'dead men tell no tales'. However, he was tried, sentenced to death and executed within three days of the happening.

The German Policeman was buried with full military honours and I was instructed by the Island authorities to attend the funeral and place a wreath on behalf of the inhabitants. I did so but it was one of the most uncomfortable times I have ever had - the ceremony conducted in a language 1 knew nothing about and the only person there who did not, to say nothing of being the only Britisher amongst a crowd of German soldiers. However, the policeman who lost his life was there on our behalf and it was the least 1 could do. xxx

We had one outstanding criminal during this period - a young Frenchman about 20 years old, one of the finest cat burglars you could wish to find. His M.O. was always the same - up the side of a building, through a skylight or removing slates or tiles from the roof. On many occasions there were easier ways of access but he just couldn't leave his usual M.O. alone. He first came to our notice after a series of breaks into German stores and one isolated case in a local store. However, he was arrested, placed in prison and had not been in there long when he escaped.

We began to get further cases of breaking and entering - the same M.O. - and 1 was constantly asking the German Police what had become of this Frenchman. They told me that he was then serving a sentence in France but could give me no information as to how he had been caught.

34 However, I kept on that Binet, this being the man’s name, was responsible for the breaks, and one day the Germans called me to the prison and I was immediately greeted with "Mr Lamy, you are right, you are right," and was then informed that Binet was in the Island. One of his accomplices had been arrested and told them the whole story.

The search was intensified and eventually a factory was broken into and the goods recovered in a large derelict house nearby. The whole of the building was searched without result, for this was carried out at night, simply with the aid of German torches, and as it was considered that he would come back to collect the spoils, so many men were left in various parts of the house. Eventually a noise was heard and they thought Binet had returned to the house. The torches were switched on but he could not be found. He was arrested the following day by local police and it was then ascertained that at the time we were searching the house he was on the peak of the roof, therefore outside the beam of the torches, and the noise the watchers heard was Binet leaving the house, not entering it. He was one of the foreign labourers in the Island and his usual procedure was that after doing a job he went to one of the labour camps and hid for some days until things got quiet, when he would then dispose of his spoils, living rough until such time he decided to do another job and then repeated the procedure.

I was the unfortunate witness of the German “Third Degree” methods at this time. Binet had been taken to prison and three German Police Officers came to interrogate him. They came armed with a rubber hose about half an inch thick, very flexible, and in turn the three of them got at him. By the time they had finished he was just a crying wreck. Another of their methods was to leave a man in the cells all night with lights on, a couple of nights later the lights would be left off and they would come along in the early hours of the morning, wake him up and question him. Of course, it was quite obvious that waking under these conditions it was easy to extract a statement, just the kind of statement they wanted. Often statements were taken from accomplices incriminating another, the statement would then be prepared, brought along to the accused, told to read it, that it was true and he had to sign it. These statements were often signed just for the sake of peace and quietness, the prison sentence being the lesser of two evils.

The O.T. had their own prison - strangely enough the first was in a house known as "Paradise". It may have been paradise before 1940 but it was far from paradise at this particular time, and as the prisoners grew in numbers so other houses were requisitioned and they were all numbered Paradise 1, Paradise 2, etc. At Paradise 2 there was a big German jailer, standing about 6' 4" - a real brute of a man. Although he treated his prisoners brutally they did whatever they were asked or told to do, simply because they were afraid. We had quite a large number of cases of stealing in this area, particularly fowls, rabbits and pigs. We made numerous enquiries and one day after a pig had been reported stolen found a trail of blood leading to the barbed wire of the prison.

I have already mentioned the lack of co-operation between the Feldgendarmerie and the O.T. Police. We reported the matter to the Feldgendarmerie who went to the prison and questioned the prisoners. They stated that the jailer had been sending them out at night-time to steal on condition they brought him the proceeds, and they had done so with the pig. The jailer was

35 arrested, sentenced to a long term of imprisonment and died very shortly afterwards in the local prison. Whether his death was natural or not was never established, but it seems strange that a big man like him should die so suddenly.

We had one case in the country where a man was watching his field of potatoes - quite a number had been pilfered and he decided to keep watch with his son. He noticed someone digging his crops, and he immediately gave chase and found it was a German soldier. He was just within striking distance when the soldier turned round and shot him dead. The facts were immediately reported to the Police. We made enquiry as far as we were able and eventually traced the soldier to a certain hotel where he was billeted. Of course, we had no right of entry and the German Police then took over, being satisfied that it was a soldier. However, they made numerous enquiries, attempted to blind us with science, but made no effort or real headway. Consequently, the matter was never cleared up.

We had another double murder towards the end of the War. In this case an old couple, husband and wife both over 60 years, were brutally murdered for two Red Cross parcels and four cockerels. These people each had their throat cut, one had 12 wounds and the other 14 wounds on the head. One of the most brutal murders you can ever wish to see. It was known that German soldiers frequented the house and that they had been there on the night of the murder.

The matter was immediately handed to the German Police who made up their minds that a German soldier could not have done it and it must have been one of the Georgians in the army. A large number of these men had been absorbed into the German army and there were many detachments in the neighbourhood. However, the troops close to this particular house were Germans. We were lucky to find the weapon which caused the head wounds. This had been thrown away in a field of corn and had been stolen from a nearby farm.

About three weeks later the War finished. We took up the enquiry and searched the house and grounds occupied by the German troops. After digging we found a Guard Book which contained the names of the persons who were in that house that night. We made enquiries amongst the German troops and felt pretty certain that the people we were after had been quartered in that house. However, the British Authorities had then commenced sending German soldiers to a Prisoner of War Camp and it so happened that this particular detachment with the four men had been sent away. I made repeated requests to the Prisoner of War Department to trace these men but unfortunately in the chaos nothing happened.

Our most serious difficulty in connection with offences committed by German troops was that our local people would give statements stating that they had seen German soldiers and we in turn would forward that to the German Police for enquiry by them. One or two of these Police Officers - I will mention some of them later - took up a bullying attitude towards these witnesses, who would first become indecisive and then in a number of cases retract their statements. They would then immediately be fined by the Germans for telling lies about the German Forces. Of course, this did not happen in all cases, but knowledge got about and many people were afraid to give statements implicating German troops.

36 We had quite a mixed bag within the German Police - one a Sergeant Major, who in peace time was a Policeman in Dresden. He was one of the worst types you can wish to meet. He was a bully and I always thought him a drug addict. I suppose amongst all the German Police in the Island he had the worst name, and moreover, he was hated by all his companions. Another member, who in private life was a professor in a Berlin University, was an out and out Nazi. He used to spend his spare time going round to various detachments lecturing on the Nazi doctrine. I had many a political argument with him, but he would hear nothing good about the British way of life. Apart from that he was not a bad type of fellow, although I could never stand him.

About 12 months after the end of the War I had a letter from him, somewhat on these lines, "Dear Mr Lamy, do you remember me? I was with the Feldgendarmerie. We have lost the war. I am sorry." After a while I replied taking up my old attitude and much on the lines as "I told you so".

I thought that would be the last I would hear of him, but it wasn't. I had a prompt reply wherein he was defending the Nazi regime. However, I left it at that and didn't answer the letter and have heard nothing from him since.

We had others who were without doubt pro-British - one an Austrian nobleman who came to the Island in 1941 when Germany was on the crest of the wave, but he could say nothing good about Germans. At first 1 did not trust him, but he proved by his actions that he was sincere. Many times, he came to the Police Station and told me that the German Police had had an anonymous letter and were going to raid a certain place. With this knowledge we were able to warn people beforehand.

During the War we were unable to obtain sugar and saccharine was almost as scarce, and you may well believe very expensive. German Police knew saccharine was being imported into the Island illicitly and were out to break the ring, but little did they know that the "King Pin" was in their midst. This Austrian always carried his supplies around in his satchel and did quite a bit of good; he always said he was a merchant not a soldier. He certainly lived up to it. Another, a member of the Gestapo, was before the War a missionary in Hong Kong. His wife was South African and two of his three children were born on British territory. He told me that he had more friends and relations in London than he had in Germany. He certainly lived up to his creed, and whenever he could do a good turn, he did it.

We had two others from Frankfurt - boozing pals. They were true German, but anti-Hitler and they would do anything they could to help. 1 remember on one occasion meeting them in the street - one evening - one of them although not drunk had been drinking more than was good for him. They called me across the street and the sober one said, "So and So is not very happy. The R.A.F. bombed his house in Frankfurt." I naturally thought they would be leading off at me about the R.A.F., but instead of that he lead off about Hitler. He said, "I don't blame the RAF. This is War. If that b ... * Hitler hadn't started it I wouldn't be here today." Strangely enough that was the attitude of at least 50% of the German troops in the Island.

37 During 1944 we recorded 2,900 cases of stealing food stuffs. The greatest portion of this was attributed to German troops. Prior to "D" Day their rations were adequate but they always augmented as far as possible by stealing, particularly growing crops. From "D" Day onwards they were forced to tighten their belts as their source of supply had been cut off, and as the year progressed larcenies became heavier and heavier. We reported the cases to the German Police for enquiry, but unless we were in a position to trace the goods to a certain billet, we had little satisfaction, although on many occasions we were able to trace stolen cattle, and when they were detected they were very severely dealt with.

After "D" Day when things were really scarce the Germans made it an offence for any soldier found guilty of stealing food stuffs to be punished with death. This sentence was carried out on many occasions, but only in connection with stealing goods of German origin. Sometime before "D" Day all Police were issued with a special pass to enable them to come to the Police Station in case of invasion, and at the same time a number of local officials, one of whom was the Chief Officer of Police, were to be regarded as hostages for the good behaviour of the population in case of invasion. Needless to say, the invasion did not take place, and we all breathed freely again.

In the early hours of "D" Day, about 3.30 a.m., I was awakened at home by a Police Officer and told that I had to get all the men to the Station and report to Headquarters when this had been completed. All 'phones had been cut off, so our mobilisation plans went by the board, and it meant a personal call in each case. However, they were all in by 5 a.m. I went up to the German Headquarters to report. When 1 arrived, I found that the front door was locked and I was admitted through a French window into one of the rooms. The staff were all congregated round a table on which was a map of the Cherbourg Peninsula.

The room was lighted by candles and aircraft were droning overhead the whole time. Of course, we guessed what was happening and from the map 1 had some idea of the locality. In the early days of the War, we had a German aircraft flying over the Island all night, so by way of trying to gather information I asked how long that plane was going to continue flying over the Island. One of them looked at me very old-fashioned and said, "I don't know, but I think there is more than one." However, that was all the information I gained. Nothing further happened, and I was told to keep the men until later when I would receive further instructions. Later in the day I was told the men had to be congregated at the Police Station twice daily - 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and I had to report to Headquarters at those times.

About this time, we were receiving continual attention from the R.A.F. bombing and machine- gunning shipping in the Harbour; also Fort George which overlooked the Harbour. This Fort contained four Radar installations and the R.A.F. were doing their best to put them out of action. Unfortunately, the bombs did not all fall on the target and some fell on adjoining property, fortunately with no civilian casualties. As we had no telephone communication, and when these raids occurred had no means of notifying the Police on duty, I arranged for all men to be quartered in and near the Police Station.

38 We kept this up for about two weeks after "D" Day. As you may depend the men made themselves quite at home and one of them brought along a piano accordion. The German official to whom I had to report was named Zachau. Each time I returned from reporting at 4 o'clock I saw the men and told them to carry on, and they made up a song to the tune of "O God our help in ages past". I forget the whole of the song but the first line was "We are old Zachau's army", and this burst out on every occasion they were told to carry on. You can well imagine how far their voices sounded when 60 men were singing lustily - it was heard quite a distance, and at times quite a crowd would stop to listen, including German soldiers, but we had no repercussions as they probably did not understand sufficient English.

About this time the Germans could see that they were likely to be cut off and they sent our section (civilian) of the German Police back home. We then had to deal with the military Section. We previously had had no dealings with them and there was little love between us. Things did not run very smoothly for a while.

About December 1944 Island food stocks and medical supplies were at their lowest ebb. We had practically nothing to eat. Hospitals had almost exhausted their supplies and it was impossible to obtain any from the Continent. Patients were only served with one meal a day and other meals had to be provided by their friends and relatives, about the only thing they could be supplied with were various kinds of vegetables. Only the most severe operations could be performed in order to conserve supplies of anaesthetics, gut etc.

It then became apparent that some drastic action was necessary and it was arranged that one man would get away from the Island and give a true report of the conditions. This man was an ex-Mercantile Captain, who was then acting as a fisherman, and he made the arrangements. There were few of us in the scheme because it was risky to trust too many. It was arranged that a meeting of the States would be called and one member gave notice that he would ask the President of the Board of Health, the President of the Essential Commodities Committee, for a true state of the Island stocks. Statements were made in detail - I have a copy of these - and the matter stated publicly at a meeting of the States. I attended that day and Captain Noyon, who was to take back the information, was also present. As soon as the meeting was over, he went to his boat and fooled the Germans, who always accompanied fishermen on their expeditions, and set out. It was all arranged that if everything went well the following day a relative of his would come to me and report him, and his boat, missing. He was duly reported missing and of course the facts had to be reported to the German Authorities, but he got safely away and eventually the first Red Cross supplies were sent to us.

Stealing was now rife and the German Authorities suggested that the Police Force be armed. The suggestion was put to me by the local official, but 1 refused point blank. Of course, I knew what would happen. German troops were doing most of the stealing and it would soon develop into a shooting match. I would be the poor unfortunate to stand the initial racket, and deaths of German soldiers would be placed on the heads of the local officials, so the matter ended there. By this time all Germans and locals were in the same boat and living simply on the Island's resources, the Germans taking a major proportion. German Police, as I already stated, were not

39 co-operative and we began to ignore them. There were many cases where Police and German soldiers clashed. Truncheons and bayonets were drawn. There were minor casualties on both sides, but neither side spoke of them. The local officials were also taking the same attitude. A letter was sent to the German Commandant which in point said that as they were unable to feed us it was their duty to surrender. I have a copy of that letter, also a copy of the reply sent by the Germans. Both make very interesting reading.

Just before Christmas the first Red Cross ship came to the Island, and except for the St John Ambulance personnel no local people were allowed near the ship, the whole of the loading and transport to store being carried out by German troops. The cases were brought to a large hall for examination by German customs but they would never open a package unless local Police were present. These parcels contained all the foods we had thought about but had not seen for years - raisins, tinned fruit, jam etc., to say nothing of soap. Although the Germans were very short of food, I don't think we had one case where goods were stolen from these parcels, either in transit or at the store.

We had also been without bread for three weeks and this consignment contained tons of pure white flour. Up to the time when supplies ran out, we had been using oat flour and all sorts of muck containing husks, dirt and anything we could put in. You can imagine how the people felt when they received their first loaf of pure white flour.

Our troubles then commenced. German troops seeing these parcels naturally envied them. While they were in the various shops awaiting distribution, we provided all-night guards of Regular Police and Special Constables and had no trouble, but they were all distributed at stated periods - one per person per month. Of course, a family of any size would naturally, on the day of distribution, have a large number of these packages in the house. Large numbers of houses were broken into and the parcels stolen until the people got wise to it and when retiring at night every scrap of food stuffs in the house was taken to the bedroom. Even this did not stop the Germans, because on many occasions they broke in and held persons up at the point of a pistol, stealing the Red Cross supplies. I have already told you how two people were murdered for two parcels.

From this time onwards until the end of the War we had regular supplies from the British Red Cross Association. I remember on one occasion one case of babies' layettes were sent by the British Consul in Lisbon, Portugal. The case was lined with newspapers containing numerous photographs, and the Gestapo chief suddenly pounced on it as propaganda. He didn't make a very good job of it for in the bottom of the case was quite a number of recent copies of "The Daily Mail". You can imagine that these were quickly snapped up. One of them contained particulars of a Guernseyman who had recently been awarded the George Cross in connection with an ammunition explosion in the Midlands.

Things went on much the same towards the end of the War. The Officer in charge of the German Police was a young man, about 25 years, he could see the 'red light’, and was doing his best to assist us but was opposed by his men. We were not getting anywhere with enquiries

40 so I wrote to the German Headquarters and told them that their Police were not assisting us in preventing stealing of food stuffs. They passed it on to this Officer and the next I saw of him he cried to me because I had written to his Chief telling him that he was not doing his duty, and his men were saying he was pro- British. However, that was only a dig, but had very little effect.

The Island was very heavily armed but at that time we had about 12,000 troops stationed here. From "D" Day all the population were hoping for an invasion, but as time went on it seemed quite apparent that the British Government had other ideas. During the rapid offensive through France and Germany the R.A.F. came over each night, and we called them the "Newspaper Planes". They dropped containers with papers printed in German showing the latest state of the advance - real up to the minute stuff. It was an offence for anyone, British or German, to be in possession of these. We were able to get a copy of every leaflet dropped - even one canister which fell in a German billet and failed to explode. A Police Officer made out he did not know it was a German billet and under their noses extracted a bundle.

As we were the only people allowed out after curfew, we were the only people, with a few exceptions, to get possession of these. In the early days Police Officers distributed them amongst their friends and of course their friends told their friends and eventually the Police Station became somewhat on the lines of a newsagent.

People would come every morning to get their paper. As the stream was so constant, I had to discontinue the distribution for fear of trouble arising. These leaflets, being so up to the minute, even showed the surrender of the Luneberg Heath, and although it was a serious offence to be in possession of wireless sets most people had their own crystal sets - mine was contained in an electric light joint box.

At that time the A.E.F. programme were putting out hourly programmes. On the last Sunday of the War news came over to the effect that the War would finish at one minute after twelve on the Tuesday night. On the Monday afternoon a British Destroyer came off the Island and asked the Germans to surrender there and then. This was refused and they were told that unless they got away immediately they would be blown out of the water. However, the Destroyer went off and on that Monday night the Germans were out in force, manning guns and doing everything possible to counter an invasion. You can well imagine our thoughts after waiting so long to think that now the War was over, we would be in the midst of fighting, and we really expected it because the Commandant of the Channel Islands was a fanatical Nazi Admiral.

However, the next morning at 10 o'clock I was in the Police Station feeling rather miserable and looking out of the window when I noticed a German Staff car draw up outside the Court buildings and two naval officers go in. I came away from the window and later saw Sir John Leale, who was President of the Controlling Committee, which acted somewhat on the same lines as the Cabinet, with his head down looking rather glum.

41 I suspected the worst and ran over to his office to hear it. When I got there, he was all smiles, came across, shook hands and said, "The Germans have informed the Bailiff that the War so far as we are concerned is over at 3 o'clock this afternoon and that we can fly our flags." Of course, that put a different complexion on it. Flags went out immediately and so did hundreds of other flags which people were carrying and the Town was packed. There was very little demonstration. The people were too stunned to demonstrate. They were walking about the Town carrying flags and the German soldiers walking about the Town going about their normal duties ~ neither one side taking notice of the other.

I was then in a very difficult position because although the Germans said the War was over so far as we were concerned at 3 o'clock it did not terminate until midnight. We had no Allied troops in the Island and I was responsible for law and order. Shortly after 3 o'clock I had a telephone message from the German Authorities stating that the position had now changed. Instead of me asking them - they had to ask me certain things. Shortly after that I had another telephone message. I had heard several guns firing and the message was from German Headquarters asking why they were firing. I told them I did not know and it was their business to see that they did not fire and requested them to put the German Police on the enquiry. However, it transpired that they were only emptying the rounds left in the barrels.

I only had one incident which might have proved ugly. A number of locals living near a German Battery had gone out and pulled down the German Flag, hoisting the Union Jack. The Germans in turn promptly pulled down the Union Jack and hoisted the German Swastika again. This went on for a short while and the Germans notified me of it. I was afraid that any German, finger trigger conscious, might pull a gun thereby starting something we could never cope with. I sent a couple of Police Officers down to tell the locals that there was very little we could do. We would have British troops in the next day, and to wait a little while thereby saving loss of blood. Fortunately, they saw sense and thus no further trouble arose. The Germans were confined to their barracks that night and everything passed off peacefully.

The following morning another official and I went down to the Harbour to meet the incoming troops. This detachment was composed of three officers and 20 men. You can imagine our feelings when they came ashore. On looking at their dress and equipment I felt much like Rip Van Winkle, everything had been revised during the War. We had no knowledge of it and we felt like school children asking various questions. The answer would appear quite obvious to the people coming in, but not quite so obvious to we who had missed all these things during the past five years.

I arranged with the Officer commanding the troops for the surrender of the German Admiral. I had looked forward to this for years. I arranged for this to take place at 3 p.m. Unfortunately, the main body of troops which included Civilian Affairs was due at the same time and my duty was to meet them - unfortunately I missed the surrender.

The behaviour of the German troops was all that could be desired apart from stealing, which is natural with a large body of men and the unusual circumstances, it could be more or less

42 expected. During the whole of the period, I rarely saw a German soldier drunk about the streets although they did have many drinking bouts but these occurred in their billets. It was very unusual to hear a soldier whistle after a woman in the street and during the whole period we only had two cases of rape - one occurred within the first week of the Occupation, and he was sentenced to death, the other some years later. We reported the facts to the German Police. The man was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment. He appealed and the sentence was changed to 8 years, but although we had made the enquiry, I am very doubtful if it was a case of rape. I think the girl was a consenting party.

There was one incident worthy of note which happened on the previous day at 3 o'clock. The Officer in Charge of the German Police came to the Station and handed me his sword, I have that, and later the same afternoon the Gestapo Chief sent down his pistol. These and a German Police Breastplate are the only souvenirs I have of five years under German rule.

Island Police 1942 Regular Officers

Top Row (Left to Right): PC F Le Cocq, A/Sergt. R Kimber, A/Sergt. H Pugh, Sergt. H Dyson, PC R Marsh. Bottom Row (Left to Right): Sergt. H Bull, Det Sergt. E Pill, Inspector A Lamy, Sergt. C Le Lievre, Clerk Sergt. E Plevin

ORDERS OF THE COMMANDANT OF THE GERMAN FORCES IN OCCUPATION OF THE ISLAND OF GUERNSEY

All inhabitants must be indoors by 11 p.m. and must not leave their homes before 6 a.m.

We will respect the population in Guernsey, but should anyone attempt to cause the least trouble, serious measures will be taken and the Town bombed.

All orders given by the Military are to be strictly obeyed.

43 All spirits must be locked up immediately, and no spirits may be supplied, obtained or consumed henceforth. This prohibition does not apply to stocks in private houses.

No person shall enter the aerodrome at La Villiaze.

All rifles, airguns, pistols, revolvers, daggers, sporting guns, and all other weapons whatsoever, except souvenirs, must, together with all ammunition be delivered at the Royal Hotel by 12 noon today, July 1.

All British sailors, airmen, and soldiers on leave in this Island must report at the Police Station at 9 am. Today, and must then report at the Royal Hotel.

No boat or vessel of any description, including any fishing boat, shall leave the harbours or any other place where the same is moored, without an order from the Military Authority, to be obtained at the Royal Hotel. All boats arriving from Jersey, from Sark, or from Herm, or elsewhere, must remain in harbour until permitted by the Military Authority to leave. The crew will remain on board. The Master will report to the Harbour Master, St Peter Port, and will obey his instructions.

The sale of motor spirit is prohibited, except for use on essential services, such as doctors' vehicles, the delivery of foodstuffs, and sanitary services where such vehicles are in possession of a permit from the Military Authority to obtain supplies. The vehicles must be brought to the Royal Hotel by 12 noon today to receive the necessary permission. The use of cars for private purposes is forbidden.

The blackout regulations already in force must be observed as before.

Banks and shops will open as usual.

(Signed) The German Commandant of the, Island of Guernsey. July 1/1940,

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